Severna Park's July 4 parade to be shown on Jones Intercable

When Skip Carr drives the "Red Baron" through the streets of Severna Park next week during the Fourth of July parade, he will be showing off the 1948 red and white Buick Roadmaster to a crowd that will include more than the hundreds of spectators expected to line the route.

This year, for the first time in the parade's 21-year history, Anne Arundel County residents will be able to watch the floats, bands and Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops on Jones Intercable, Channel 22.

The parade, which gets under way at 10 a.m., will be broadcast at 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 p.m. Saturday, and each weekend in July.

"I think it's real exciting," that the parade is being broadcast, said Nicki Kaukonen, chairwoman of the Greater Severna Park Chamber of Commerce parade committee. "I think it'll help bring more people to the parade in the future."

Parade spectators will be able to hear the Severna Park High School band, the Jaycee's Kazoo band, and the Severna Park Bums as the groups step off and entertain crowds along a route that begins at St. Martins-in-the-Field Episcopal Church on Benfield Road.

County Councilwoman Diane Evans, this year's grand marshal, will lead the line of horses, antique cars and floats down Evergreen Road, left on Riggs Road and left again on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard to Park Plaza, where the Fourth of July festival will be held.

"For some people in Severna Park, this parade makes their day," said Linda Zahn, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the parade. "They might have a picnic in the back or a pool party at night, but by golly, that morning they're at the parade."

Ms. Zahn also said she is hoping that this year's festivities will draw a larger crowd because Annapolis won't be holding its parade.

"If you're a person from Annapolis, you don't have a parade this year, so you might go looking for another one," she said.

Parade planners hope the more than 80 parade participants will make floats and don costumes in line with this year's theme, "Visions of Severna Park: The year 2020."

Ms. Zahn said the theme reflects a desire among leaders to take control of the community's future through such groups as the Association for Severna Park Improvement, Renewal and Enhancement (ASPIRE).

"It's a theme that's inspired by the need for a community to take control of its destiny," she said. "ASPIRE is looking into long-range planning for the community and the chamber is very interested in the future of Severna Park."